Celine Dion brought the curtain down on a rain-soaked but spectacular opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics – which also featured a performance from Lady Gaga on the banks of the River Seine.
The Canadian singer sang Hymne à l’amour – a popular French track from 1950 originally sung by Edith Piaf – from a brightly lit Eiffel Tower in a stunning climax to the nearly four-hour-long show.
It was the 56-year-old’s first live performance since her stiff person syndrome diagnosis in 2022.
It came after US star Gaga – the first musical act at the event – was joined by a host of dancers shaking pink pompoms as she delivered a dazzling gig.
But her show was all pre-recorded, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The Grammy and Oscar-winner, 38, kicked off her performance on steps along the Seine, singing Zizi Jeanmaire’s 1961 track Mon Truc en Plumes.
Olympic opening ceremony: As it happened
In a post on social media, Lady Gaga, 38, wrote: “I feel so completely grateful to have been asked to open the Paris Olympics 2024 this year.
“I am also humbled to be asked by the Olympics organising committee to sing such a special French song – a song to honour the French people and their tremendous history of art, music, and theatre.”
She also congratulated the athletes and added it was her “supreme honour” to sing for them.
Her representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why her performance was pre-recorded, said AP.
Zinedine Zidane, 52, also had a starring role – at the beginning and towards the end of the event.
The French football legend appeared in a pre-recorded segment running through Paris with the Olympic torch.
And later near the Eiffel Tower he handed it to Rafael Nadal who then got into a speed boat with fellow tennis star Serena Williams, former sprinter Carl Lewis and ex-gymnast Nadia Comaneci as they made their way along the river, before handing the torch to another leading tennis figure Amelie Mauresmo.
The relay ended as the Olympic cauldron was lit by French judoka Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-Jose Perec in a hot air balloon – marking the symbolic start of the games – which was lifted into the sky, before Dion’s performance above the Olympic rings at the Eiffel Tower.
For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremony did not take place in a stadium. It was also the first time it had rained at such a ceremony at a summer games for more than 70 years.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the banks and bridges of the Seine as they watched thousands of athletes on boats in a flotilla making their way along the waterway.
Some 205 delegations were represented on 85 boats in a four-mile (6km) parade between Austerlitz bridge and Jena bridge.
Heavy rain fell but it did not seem to dampen people’s spirits.
“The rain can’t stop us,” said US basketball star LeBron James, sporting a plastic poncho along with the other American flagbearer, tennis player Coco Gauff.
Among the guests were world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who were joined by dignitaries such as the US First Lady Jill Biden and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
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Paris organisers said 6,800 of the 10,500 athletes would attend the ceremony before they embark on the next 16 days of competition.
The event was split into 12 themes, including liberty, equality, fraternity, sisterhood, sportsmanship, and festivity.
The ceremony began with a humorous pre-recorded segment of Zidane weaving through a Parisian traffic jam, including “jumping” over a car.
He made his way underground to the Metro where he gave the torch to three children who went on a boat with a hooded figure through the Catacombs before they emerged on the river surface as the broadcast switched to a real-life view of the Seine.
Plumes of blue, white and red smoke – representing the colours of the French Tricolor flag – were also seen on a bridge before the flotilla began with the Greece boat.
On the Team GB vessel, flagbearers diver Tom Daley and rower Helen Glover appeared to recreate an iconic moment from the 1997 movie Titanic.
Daley held his arms out wide as Glover stood behind him, holding the Union Flag in front.
At the fan zone at Musee d’Orsay, the Israeli team were booed as they appeared on a big TV screen.
The ceremony also included a sequence that alluded to the musical Les Miserables before a guillotined Marie Antoinette was shown at the Conciergerie, the site where the last French queen consort prior to the revolution was imprisoned.
French heavy metal band Gojira put on a fiery performance as they played on balconies and windows, attached by harnesses, across the building.
Red streamers burst out of the Conciergerie before a performance from opera singer Marina Viotti.
Among the other performers was French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, who sang while wearing a golden dress paired with gladiator boots and gold jewellery.
The Olympic flag was then carried up the Seine via an animatronic metal horse, which was then brought to life in the form of a real rider and horse.
They made their way up the Trocadero, where the flag was raised, upside down, in front of dignitaries and athletes, in what appeared to be the only real hiccup of the night.
Mr Bach said to the athletes: “We are part of an event that unites the world. In our Olympic world, there is no ‘global south’ or ‘global north’. We all respect the same rules and each other. In our Olympic world, we all belong.”
He added: “In a world torn apart by wars and conflicts, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can all come together tonight, uniting the athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.”
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There was also an appearance by the Minions who attended because Illumination Studios, which makes the Despicable Me franchise of animated comedy films, is based in France.
The ceremony took place at the end of a day of major travel disruption caused by arsonists’ overnight attacks on the country’s high-speed train network.
France’s national railway company SNCF said the “exceptional mobilisation” of several thousand railway workers will enable services to improve on Saturday after the sabotage.
Source : Sky News
